973.7L63 
OOalih 
East  Cage 


Oakleaf,  Josepn  Benjamin 
Hobbies.   An  address  on  the 
collection  of  Lincoln  litera- 
ture. 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


••••••••••••••••••< 


HOBBIES 


AN  ADDRESS  ON  THE  COLLECTION 
OF  LINCOLN  LITERATURE 


BY 

JOSEPH  BENJAMIN  OAKLEAF 

OF  THE  ILLINOIS  BAR 


? 

DELIVERED  FEBRUARY  12TH,    1913,    BEFORE  A  | 

BODY  OF  MEN  EACH  OF  WHOM   HAD 
A  HOBBY  OF  SOME  SORT 


i  AUGUSTANA   BOOK    CONCERN 

f  Printers  and  Binders 

I  '    Rock   Island,    Illinois 

i  1923 

H"l    I     •"■'■!■■■■     IHn|Hii|ri|ii|M|     >■   «  ii«m»ii«h»i«h »■■>■■>  —  ■■>■■>■■<■ 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


HOBBIES 


Through  all  time,  so  far  as  we  have 
been  informed,  most  men  have  had  a  hob- 
by of  some  sort.  It  seems  that  the  busi- 
ness, professional,  scientific  and  other 
men  seek  for  some  diversion  outside  of 
their  beaten  path  to  act  as  a  sort  of  safe- 
ty valve,  and  such  sought  for  diversions 
are  greater  now  than  at  any  other  period 
of  the  world's  history.  We  are  now  liv- 
ing in  a  very  rapid  age.  What  would 
have  taken  our  forefathers  weeks  to  ac- 
complish we  accomplish  now  between 
the  rising  and  setting  sun.  The  various 
means  of  locomotion  have  eliminated 
distances;  we  have  scarcely  left  our 
office  or  place  of  business  until  we 
have   arrived    at    our    objective     point; 

3 


and  thus  our  brains  are  continually 
in  a  whirl  with  business  activities.  It 
is  true  that  those  who  are  believers 
in  church  and  enjoy  church  work,  have 
one  day  out  of  the  seven  in  which  to 
set  the  mind  at  rest  and  get  consola- 
tion and  rest.  They,  too,  are  inspired 
with  the  thought  that  after  the  end  of  this 
busy,  active  life,  there  is  rest  and  reward 
for  those  who  have  their  lamps  burning 
and  await  the  coming  of  the  bridegroom. 
Many  thousand  others,  however,  do  not 
seek  consolation  and  rest  from  busi- 
ness activities  by  entering  the  House  of 
Worship  on  the  Lord's  Day,  but  seek  the 
field,  the  running  brook,  and  there  com- 
mune with  nature;  still  others  will  be 
found  on  the  golf  links,  chasing  the  little 
white  sphere  around  the  field  like  "the 
mother  who  is  chasing  her  boy  around 
the  room";  others  will  be  satisfied  to  sit 
on  the  bleachers  under  a  hot  July  sun  and 
see  their  favorite  team  in  the  national 
pastime  win  its  laurels.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing these  many  diversions,  countless 
numbers  of  men  and  women  will  resort 

4 


to  a  hobby  of  some  sort  to  give  addi- 
tional diversion  and  direct  their  minds 
into  channels  that  will  serve  to  lighten 
the  burden  of  the  active,  professional  or 
business  life. 

I  have  talked  with  men  who  have  had 
a  hobby  and  have  found  that  it  was 
curiosity  or  love  of  some  particular  thing 
which  prompted  the  starting  of  that 
hobby.  As  a  rule,  it  did  not  begin  as 
a  hobby,  in  the  first  place,  but  became 
a  hobby  after  the  curiosity  had  been 
aroused  or  the  love  for  the  particular 
line  had  been  fixed. 

I,  in  common  with  many  thousands  of 
people  in  the  United  States  and  else- 
where, am  a  true  lover  of  Lincoln.  I 
can  well  remember,  as  a  boy,  only  a  few 
years  of  age,  the  picture  issued  shortly 
after  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  a 
copy  of  which  hung  in  the  sitting  room 
of  my  home.  It  was  a  picture  of  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln  with  the  inscription: 
"Washington  made,  and  Lincoln  saved, 
our  Country."  My  home  town  (Moline, 
Illinois)  being  one  of  the  stations  on  the 

5 


"underground  railroad,"  and  one  of  the 
strongest  abolition  towns  in  the  country, 
I  heard  naturally  much  about  Lincoln, 
and  as  a  boy  I  always  admired  the  kind 
face  and  pleasing  personality  of  the  mar- 
tyred president,  and  as  I  grew  to  man- 
hood, the  boyish  admiration  grew  into 
reverence. 

Previous  to  the  time  that  Nicolay  and 
Hay  wrote  their  biography  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  I  had  read  a  life  or  two  of  Lin- 
coln, and  many  different  incidents  in 
magazines  and  papers,  but  the  publica- 
tion by  Nicolay  and  Hay  was  hailed  with 
great  delight,  for  much  that  had  been 
hidden  was  brought  to  light  by  them.  It 
is  certainly  true  that  we  cannot  study  the 
life  of  a  great  man,  to  advantage,  unless 
at  the  same  time  we  study  the  events  of 
the  times  in  which  that  man  lived  and 
the  men  with  whom  he  was  connected. 
The  ten  volumes  that  were  published  by 
the  Century  Company  were  the  result  of 
the  brains  of  Lincoln's  private  secre- 
taries. 

In  this  work,  Nicolay  and  Hay  have  a 

6 


monument  to  them  greater  than  any 
amount  of  money  placed  in  a  marble  or 
precious  stone. 

I  read  in  the  Century  periodical  from 
month  to  month,  for  twelve  months,  the 
life  of  Lincoln  and  the  men  and  times 
with  which  he  was  connected,  and  when 
the  last  number  of  the  magazine  arrived 
which  closed  the  history,  I  re-read  it, 
and  having  taken  up  law  as  my  profession 
and  became  acquainted  with  annotations 
in  the  text  books,  it  occurred  to  me  that 
I  would  like  to  be  the  possessor  of  all  the 
books  to  which  Nicolay  and  Hay  refer- 
red in  their  foot  notes,  for  it  seemed  to 
me  that  if  they  could  weave  such  a  splen- 
did history  by  the  use  of  their  references 
and  the  material  culled  from  the  books  to 
which  they  referred,  it  would  be  a  pleas- 
ure to  own  such  books.  I  thought  I 
would  like  to  have  all  of  the  biographies 
of  Lincoln,  at  least,  and  I  then  concluded 
that  a  hundred  volumes  would  probably 
be  the  extent  of  my  library.  I  began  col- 
lecting in  a  modest  manner  and  did  not 
correspond  with  any  one  who  was  collect- 

7 


ing,  nor  did  I  know  of  any  one  who  had 
the  hobby.  I  made  notations  from  the 
foot  notes  of  the  work  of  Nicolay  and 
Hay  and  I  went  to  our  Public  Library 
and  finally  my  name  became  known  to 
the  old  book  dealers  and  I  received  cata- 
logues, and  then  my  hobby  really  started. 
While  I  was  endeavoring  to  procure  the 
books  that  I  had  noted,  others  became 
known  to  me  and  my  hundred  volumes 
finally  grew  to  four  hundred,  then  to 
five  hundred,  six  hundred  and  so  on,  but 
my  gala  day  came  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1900.  It  was  while  visiting  with  the 
genial  Frank  M.  Morris  of  Chicago,  in 
his  famous  book  shop,  that  he  informed 
me  that  a  man  by  the  name  of  Fish  of 
Minneapolis  had  compiled  a  biblio- 
graphy. Upon  my  return  home,  I  wrote 
to  the  Hon.  Daniel  Fish,  with  a  great 
deal  of  misgiving,  and  inquired  as  to  his 
bibliography,  and  out  of  the  goodness  of 
his  great  heart  he  sent  me  a  copy  of  Lin- 
colniana.  If  I  had  known  how  exten- 
sive a  complete  collection  of  Lincolniana 
would  be  when  I  first  began  collecting, 

8 


I  am  satisfied  that  I  would  not  have  had 
the  heart  to  begin  the  work.  But  thus  it 
is,  that  where  we  are  not  allowed  to  peer 
into  the  future,  we  undertake  work  which 
we  will  carry  on  successfully,  not  know- 
ing what  the  end  means  but  keep  plod- 
ding on  from  day  to  day  until  finally  we 
reach  the  goal. 

My  collection  of  Lincolniana  was 
known  locally,  and  at  one  time  I  appeared 
before  the  high  school  of  our  City  to  say 
something  about  Lincoln.  At  that  time 
I  tendered  the  use  of  my  library  to  any 
one  who  desired  to  make  a  research,  and  a 
young  man  by  the  name  of  Philip  Joseph 
availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  and 
delivered  an  oration  entitled:  "The  Fame 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.11  The  paper  was 
well  written,  and  I  had  it  published  for 
him  and  sent  a  copy  to  Mr.  Fish,  who  ask- 
ed me  to  send  a  copy  to  his  good  friend, 
Judd  Steward.  This  I  did,  and  in  that 
way  reached  the  heart  and  hand  of  that 
genial  Lincoln  enthusiast. 

My  collection,  now,  has  grown  to 
something    over    fifteen    hundred    items 


and  it  is  still  growing,  slowly  but  steadily. 

With  the  death  of  Major  Lambert, 
last  summer,  there  passed  away  the 
prince  of  Lincoln  collectors.  His  col- 
lection cannot  be  duplicated  and  now 
Judd  Stewart  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
collectors  of  Lincolniana,  and  he  well  de- 
serves the  place  for  he  has  always  been 
willing  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  his 
brother  collectors. 

Not  only  has  the  collection  of  Lincoln- 
iana been  a  pleasure  to  me,  but  the 
acquaintance  that  I  have  formed  through 
my  hobby  is  really  worth  to  me  many 
fold  more  than  my  collection.  There  is 
not  a  city,  or  town,  of  any  note  in  the 
United  States,  where  I  have  not  some 
one  with  whom  I  have  corresponded  or 
talked  on  the  subject,  and  if,  by  chance, 
I  am  a  sojourner  in  a  city  or  town  for  an 
hour  or  two,  I  always  refer  to  my  hobby 
address  book  and  am  sure  to  find  some  one 
interested,  and  I  am  always  welcome,  for 
the  usual  salutation  of  the  stranger  will 
be:  "Any  man  who  loves  Lincoln  is  a 
friend  of  mine." 

10 


I  have  never  placed  my  collection  on  a 
commercial  basis.  I  mean  by  that,  that 
I  would  not  pay  a  high  price  for  an  item 
just  for  the  sake  of  having  it  in  my  col- 
lection, for  I  have  learned  that  in  the 
course  of  time  I  would  get  the  item  for 
the  mere  asking.  I  remember  definitely 
of  many  items  having  come  into  my  col- 
lection for  which  I  had  been  tempted  to 
pay  a  big  price,  but  by  biding  my  time 
they  have  come  to  me  with  the  compli- 
ments of  some  one  or  through  the  intima- 
tion of  some  good  friend.  I  have  always 
made  it  a  habit  to  keep  all  the  correspond- 
ence concerning  any  certain  item  about 
which  I  was  inquiring,  and  when  the 
item  is  finally  received  I  preserve  the  cor- 
respondence, which  makes  a  sort  of  a 
history  of  the  item  and  the  work  that  was 
necessary  to  bring  it  into  my  possession. 

Living  in  Rock  Island  County,  where 
Lincoln  was  sworn  into  the  service  of  the 
United  States  as  a  voluteer  in  the  Black- 
hawk  War,  and  within  sight  of  the  Vil- 
lage made  famous  by  Blackhawk,  and, 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  the  only  time  that 
11 


LIBRARV  ""**%* 


Lincoln  was  ever  in  Rock  Island  County, 
we  feel  that  Rock  Island  County  has  had 
much  to  do  with  the  bringing  of  fame 
to  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  was  in  this 
County  that  the  first  bridge  spanned  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  company  building 
the  bridge  retained  Abraham  Lincoln  to 
help  them  in  their  efforts  to  retain  the 
bridge  in  the  suit  brought  by  the  river- 
men,  and  out  of  which  Lincoln  received 
one  of  his  first  large  fees.  It  was  at  Fort 
Armstrong  in  Rock  Island  County,  that 
Dred  Scott,  as  body  servant  of  Dr.  Emer- 
son, was  stationed  for  a  number  of  years, 
and  on  account  of  Dred  Scott's  residence 
there,  his  case  came  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States. 

There  are  now  many  who  are  interest- 
ed in  the  collecting  of  Lincolniana,  with 
new  ones  coming  to  the  front  continually. 
To  such,  I  extend  the  hand  of  Lincoln 
fellowship  with  my  heart  in  it,  knowing 
that  what  they  do  will  not  only  be  of  serv- 
ice to  themselves,  but  to  the  city  or  com- 
munity in  which  they  live  and  of  benefit 
to  their  friends. 

12 


In  closing,  I  would  like  to  mention  all 
of  those  who  have  been  very  kind  to  me, 
but  I  cannot  do  so  for  the  list  would  be 
too  long,  but  I  must  not  close  without 
mentioning  a  few,  and  they  are: 

Major  W.  H.  Lambert,  who  has  now 
gone  to  his  reward,  a  better  man,  I  think, 
never  lived;  Judd  Stewart,  the  able  as- 
sistant to  the  President  of  the  American 
Smelting  Company;  Hon.  Charles  W. 
McLellan,  of  Champlain,  New  York, 
who  was  a  resident  of  Springfield  at  the 
time  of  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  and 
on  account  of  his  leaning  toward  the  Con- 
federacy, left  Springfield,    but    who    is 

now  one  of  the  strongest  admirers  of 
Abraham  Lincoln;  Hon.  Daniel  Fish,  of 
Minneapolis,  whom  I  have  had  the  pleas- 
urse  of  entertaining  in  my  home  and  with 
whom  I  have  made  a  trip  through  the 
Lincoln  country;  J.  W.  Burton,  of  Lake 

Geneva,  Wisconsin,  in  whose  home  I 
have  been  entertained  and  feasted  my 
eyes  upon  his  splendid  collection  of  Lin- 
colniana.  These  were  my  early  friends 
in  the  beginning  of  my  hobby,  and  I  can 

13 


now  count  many  others  who  are  near  to 
me  and  who  have  reciprocated  most 
generously  the  favor  extended  to  them. 


l-i 


MOORSFIELD  os  RIVER  CHAZY 

Champlain,  New  York 

August  26,  1923. 

J.  B.  Oakleaf,  Esq., 

Moline,  111. 

My  dear  Oakleaf: — 

I  note  that  in  your  mention  of  Father  you  make  a  curiously 
inaccurate  statement,  which  I  feel  I  should  correct  for  your 
personal  information.  You  state  on  Page  13  of  " Hobbies"  that 
Father  "was  a  resident  of  Springfield  at  the  time  of  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war  and  on  account  of  his  leaning  towards  the  Con- 
federacy, left  Springfield."     The  truth  is  quite  different. 

Father  was  Northern  in  every  fibre  of  his  being;  born  in 
Beverly,  Mass.,  November  25,  1836;  in  1856  he  went  to  Spring- 
field, 111.,  to  become  a  bookkeeper  with  Chas.  Hurst  &  Co.,  and 
later  John  Williams;  he  was  a  member  of  the  Springfield  Greys 
there.  In  September,  i860,  he  went  to  Mobile,  Ala.,  at  the 
instigation  of  a  friend  of  his  whose  Uncle  was  a  cotton  factor  in 
Mobile  and  who  wanted  a  bookkeeper  and  who  made  what  Father 
considered  a  very  attractive  offer.  Father  said  that  his  friend 
and  he  left  Springfield  with  the  feeling  that  the  future  held  great 
possibilities  for  them.  For  a  year  after  his  arrival  in  Mobile 
things  were  quiet  and  although  the  war  had  started  in  April,  1861, 
it  was  felt  but  little;  and  that  it  was  only  when  he  made  prepara- 
tions for  coming  North  that  he  awoke  to  the  seriousness  of  the 
situation.  He  had  corresponded  with  Robert  Lincoln  and  with 
friends  North,  and  it  was  intimated  by  Southern  friends  that  he 
had  better  not  make  the  attempt.  But  he  joined  the  Mobile 
Cadets,  a  military  organization  for  the  defence  of  the  State,  and 
later  this  organization  was  mustered  into  the  Confederate  army. 
He  often  spoke  of  the  lack  of  interest  he  seemed  to  have  paid  to 
the  great  political  questions  of  the  day;  and  that  he  rather 
drifted  with  events.  He  had  no  leaning  towards  the  Confederacy 
and  left  Springfield  solely  for  business  reasons,  without  seeing  the 
conflict  looming  on  the  horizon.  Father  left  quite  a  complete 
story  of  his  experiences  in  Springfield,  Mobile  and  during  the  war. 

With  every  good  wish, 

Sincerely  yours, 

Hugh  McLellan 


100  copies  printed, 
of  iv hie Ji  this  is 

No.JtS_ 


Thirty-one  extra   copies  were-  printed   and   bound,  but   nol    numbered) 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

973.7L63GOA4H  C001 

HOBBIES  ROCK  ISLAND 


3  0112  031821736 


